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Harry Savill
Jane Eyre – Social displacement, Victorian Society

INTRODUCTION


Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) paints a revealing and poignant vision of the seemingly insuperable
boundaries of 18th Century Victorian society
...




In effect, it is a novel of self-cultivation, and the advent of justice for Jane at the end, provides a
denouement to the difficulties of transgressing one’s place in society, which Jane rightly proves,
is not concrete
...




Autobiographical elements/context
First, it is important to analyse how the life of Jane Eyre is hindered by societal expectations
...

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Chartist movement - Such an attack was particularly relevant to the author’s era; Brontë
wrote Jane Eyre in response to the Chartist movement (1838-1848) – the first large-scale
working class uprising which challenged the political and social power-scale in the UK
...


JANE EYRE’S EARLY LIFE


Jane’s marginality begins, naturally, in her early life: and this provides the foundations upon
which her evolution begins
...
In the Reed household, she is ‘trampled on’, attacked and
‘excluded’ (252), namely by the intimidating figure, forcibly known to her as ‘Master Reed’ – she
is an interloper in her own family



Smith notes that ‘her presence created practical difficulties within the Victorian home because
she was neither a servant nor a member of the family’ (Bonnie Smith, 1989)



From the very beginning, she is challenged by two major disadvantages: she is an orphan with no
independent economic means, and she is female
...
However,
the ensuing punishment, her banishment to the Red Room, comes as a release, as, ‘phoenix-like,
Jane,’ (Nancy David, 2009) is ‘borne upstairs’
...


LOWOOD


Education formulates
It is at Lowood where her education begins to formulate
...




Lack of tenderness within the societal elite
Both Rochester and, more obviously, the Reed family lack any sense of humility and moral
tenderness
...


THORNFIELD


The conflicting duality of location and role

While Jane was able to experience the daily ‘luxuries of Gateshead’ (60), and the ‘stately and
imposing’ (85) home of Thornfield, and its Edenic garden - which is likely to have aroused
reminiscences to Sidney’s Arcadia and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to the wellread Jane Eyre – Yet her role within these places is quite different:
At Gateshead - role of an unwelcome servant because of her background
At Thornfield – governess subservient to those in her command
...

In Victorian England, Governesses were seen as a necessity in middle class and upper class
homes- personable and intellectual disposition
...




She is frowned upon by those above her
In spite of Jane’s humility and spotless morals, she is regarded as base by those above her, those
who in fact embody everything that Jane disagrees with : the superficialities of Blanche Ingram,
for example
...




The conventions of English hierarchy were based on materiality
Using Blanche as an example, it is clear that the conventions of hierarchy in early 19th Century
England were based – wrongly – on lineage and material wealth, rather than intellectual riches
...
Ironically,
in her attempt to belittle the integrity of the governess, she has her own flaws, a flaw of
ignorance that is inherent among Brontë’s human representations of high society
...
And for Jane to marry above her station
provides a challenge to the status quo of Victorian society
...
Elizabeth Eastlake even described the novel as an ‘anti-Christian composition’
(Elizabeth Eastlake, 1848)
...
And when combined with Rochester’s loss of Thornfield, it is only then that Jane and
Rochester are in equitable circumstances; this equality facilitates their union
...


A FEMINIST READING


Jane Eyre as the ‘first major feminist novel’ (R
...
Martin, 1966)
Jane Eyre stands as a paradigmatic work for 18th century female-written literature
...




Bertha is an unfiltered Jane
Jane is evidently not the archetypal image of innocence: she defies the expectation of her to
lead a plain and pious life, and this is in large part to her fighting mentality
...
She is a manifestation of Jane’s fears
...
Because of her background (‘Creole’) which the
reader is explicitly time and again reminded of, she is trapped in a lowly and insuperable status
...




‘Enclosure and Escape’
Gilbert and Gubar have described the novel as a story of ‘enclosure and escape’ (Gilbert and
Gubar, 1980)
...

In Bertha’s case, her fate provides the tragic consequences of carrying out all of the things which
the women of the novel try to suppress
...



Attempts by men to master women
Mr
...
John all attempt to command or master women at some
point in the novel
...
John and Rochester represent submissions of
individuality
...
Therefore, because of her gender, Jane is again forced into a submissive place in
society
...


SETTING/PLACE
The novel’s setting is instrumental in helping to penetrate and intensify the aforementioned deeper,
more sociological explorations within the novel
...
This does not play any part in invalidating or
quashing the pain that Jane experiences, but instead intensifies the contrast between reality and
what could quite easily have turned into the classic Victorian fairy tale, or a love story
...
Red, which connotes fire, carries the
obvious associations with sexuality, and it has been suggested that her banishment and ensuing
panic within the red room is indicative of her entry into adolescence or even a womb from which
she emerges reborn
...
However, ’Ferndean’ is
euphonious and labial in sound in accordance with the positive memories that it harbours
...
Its run-down appearance
(‘pointed gables’, ‘narrow’ ‘latticed’ window and ‘narrow’ door (381)) reflects the new character
of its master, Rochester; worn, neglected and defensive
...




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